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"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

I'm at peace

After hearing a few ridiculous, over-the-top, "Fire everybody!" type reactions after the game -- and reading Drew Sharp's column (always a mistake, but I work at a newspaper and couldn't avoid it) -- I was a bit concerned that this mindset had overtaken the Michigan fan base as a whole.

I am greatly relieved to see that most of us, or at least some of us, have been able to maintain our sanity and take this game for what it is: a disappointing loss that probably ends our bowl hopes, but has little long-term significance.

Rodriguez isn't going anywhere, and like I've been explaining to people all day, we all knew this was going to be a rough transition year. Has it been rougher than expected? Sure, the offense has struggled to do much of anything and turnovers have been an obvious problem on a weekly basis. But outside of the pride we all take in the bowl streak, is 4-8 really significantly worse than 6-6?

Let's just keep in mind that RR has had a rough transition -- followed by remarkable success -- at ALL of his previous coaching stops.

Keep up the faith, everybody, and remember that there are other loyal fans who can look at what we are working and understand the struggles we are having, all while looking forward to a brighter future.

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Glad there are still some rational people out there. Can we get our names on some kind of list, so that we can say "I told you so" in 2010-2011? I bet most of the crazy WVU fans were calling for RR's head in year 1 as well.

is that this season is turning into More Infinite Pain. I was under no delusions that the offense would struggle but hoped the defense could keep us afloat. Right now it's a little dauting to think that I have to wait until next September to feel upbeat about UM football.

We have a top 10 class coming in. The next class ALREADY has 2 five-star types and a 4-star. All these players are recruited specifically for this system. The enormous class of o-line that we got last year should be mature enough to contribute.

This is a short term hiccup. Watch the team, cheer them, and hope for the best. Understand that this is only the start.

and am fully prepared for a 2-10 year. We are fortunate we are not 1-5 already, but I think a lot of people are correct in that the offense will only occasionally show flashes of brilliance (like 2nd half Wisc) while the defense will play adequately at best. That being said, I am behind RR 100% and believe that maybe later this year, but certainly next year, we will see his offensive system begin to work; in the meantime any further wins this year I will consider a gift, and I have permanently "canceled my reservations" for Detroit.

What the critics don't consider is that really, the writing was on the wall for this season a year ago, when Carr was still around. It was not clear who would replace Mike Hart. It was not clear who would replace Jake Long. It was not clear that we could replace Manningham (who was a lock to leave) and Arrington (who was rumored to be leaving all season) and get the same production. Mallett was being groomed be the QB of the future, but there were constant rumblings of him being a headcase. People were saying that our D would have to carry us, but after the App State and Oregon debacles, no one was very optimistic about that, either.

I think there was a real possibility that even if Carr had chosen to stick for this year, we'd have still crashed and burned. It just happens that our 2005 and 2006 recruiting classes turned out not to be as good as advertised, forcing us to play a lot of young guys who probably weren't ready. That's the crux of the problem. From top to bottom, this is just not as talented a team as we usually have.

I mean really, take a look at our junior and senior classes, and try to name 10 future NFL players. I can come up with Taylor, Jamison, Will Johnson, B. Graham, Mathews and ... ? Maybe some team will (stupidly) take a chance on Carson Butler. At any rate, it's a far cry from Henne/Hart/Long/Manningham/Arrington et al.

And no, Toledo doesn't have 10 future NFL players either, but the point is, when your overall talent level is lessened, your margin for error is smaller against everybody you play, and you can't always overcome things like a -3 turnover ratio, the absence of your starting QB in the second half and a kicker missing a chipshot FG.